La Tarasca

If the kids favorite part was the hotel breakfast, mine was getting to go to my favorite mexican restaurant La Tarasca. I heard about this from my friend Oprah (yes that one) and it's an amazing restuarant in the middle of nowhere, but happened to be at the midway point of our drive. Luckily, that meant we were able to stop there both on the drive down and the drive back. It is the most authentic, delicious food and the owner is this awesome woman sharing her family recipes. We all love the food there and make an effort to stop there whenever we are in the area because the owner takes such good care of us!

Pics from the visit on the way there and the way back. 

Spring Break cont

Luckily we had plenty of indoor activities to do when the rain moved in. The kids loved visiting the Maritime Museum and learning about the history of the Columbia River, they were filled with facts for days! We went to the Aquatic Center and got even more swimming in and we had the entire theatre to ourselves for a 3D viewing of Dumbo. Brian and I got to enjoy our favorite brewery and the kids bought themselves some awesome toys and souvenirs. Ironically after all of the fun things we did, I asked the kids what their favorite part was and without hesitation, they both said, "The hotel breakfast!" They are nothing if not predictable! As long as every vacation we take includes a swimming pool and an all you can eat breakfast, my kids will be content.

Spring Break

Last week was Spring break for the kids so we returned to Oregon and went to Astoria again. We all loved it the last time and we had the same experience the 2nd time. The weather was great for the first two days and we got a lot of outdoor activities in. We went for a hike to a waterfall, another hike to see the Cathedral Tree and hiked to the infamous Column. We also walked along the Columbia River and saw a beautiful sunset. It was super fun and the kids were awesome on all our adventures.

March Madness

Another year and another NCAA bracket challenge at work. Of course, I had the kids do their own brackets again. They have outgrown choosing by mascots and now understand the rankings (although for a second Addy thought 16 was better than 1), so they make all of their own choices. For the first 2 rounds Cameron was in first place. Everyone at my work was teasing me that I need to take these kids to Vegas because they are so lucky. I told Cameron that one of my coworkers said that Cameron had "weird psychic abilities" and when I told Cameron that he laughed so hard he was almost crying and then asked "what are psychic abilities".
Cameron's 1st place lead didn't last too long since he choose the Huskies to go all the way, but as soon as Cameron fell out of first Addy took the leading spot! Unfortunately she needed Duke and Gonzaga to win, but she is still in 2nd place and did awesome! This always makes for some fun March Madness entertainment!

Rugby Time

Cameron has been playing Rugby through the Boys and Girls Club. His first few practices were canceled because of the snow, but the rest of the season was blessed by incredible weather. It didn't rain for any of his games and he definitely learned a lot about rugby. The equivalent of a touchtown in Rugby is a called a try and we got a picture of Cameron scoring one! There is no tackling, so it's flag rugby and it was super cute watching the kids play.

Cameron is in maroon with the ball and sunglasses. 

A pic of Cam scoring his try, in order to score the player must place the ball on the ground over the try line.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

What a wonderful St. Patrick's Day weekend we had! The weather was perfect and made for a very enjoyable last day of Girl Scout Cookies sales AND a festive St. Patrick's Day party.
Addy sold with her friend Abby on the final day of cookie sales and they were full of St. Patrick's day cheer! The girls did a great job and ended on a high note. I don't have the final number yet but the troop sold more than last year and Addy beat her goal (300 boxes!)
We also went to our friend's house, who are very Irish and had an incredible St. Patty's day feast. There was homemade Irish sodabread, corn beef, cabbage, potatoes and lots of delectable Irish drinks. They even had a 4 leaf clover pinata and the host suprised us in his leprechaun costume. They threw an amazing St. Patty's day party and the kids and adults had the best time.

Aunt Heather & Uncle Andrew

We had a great week with Heather and Andrew in town and fit in a lot of stuff while they were here. The kids of coursed loved having new people to play their games with, read books with and show off their legos to. There were also a few half days and no school days so we took Heather and Andrew ice skating, on walks and gave them a taste of our wonderful city. No visit is complete without our crab dinner and now we have fancy new crab tools thanks to Heather and Andrew!
There was a scary moment on a walk in the woods when both Cameron and Addy were on a bridge and ran to look at a hummingbird. Cameron bumped into Addy and tripped and fell 6 feet off the bridge. Brian jumped down and rescued him, luckily he was ok minus a few big scratches and a really scary experience. Everyone was shocked there were no broken bones.
Andrew also spent time showing Addy some awesome coding programs on the computer and Cameron showed off his geography skills to Heather. It was an incredible week and we are so grateful they spent their spring break visiting us!